ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a few of the more definitive examples of interesting geological features the author have encountered when mapping archaeological sites. The recognition of geological layers also can help with an understanding of ancient landscapes, by placing the identified cultural features within an environmental context. All natural lakes are formed from geological pro-cesses that produced some type of barrier to create a dam and impound water. They key to all the geologically complex examples presented here is a differentiation between geological unit reflections and archaeological features. A thorough analysis of the origin of reflections in GPR amplitude maps, with a specific identification of which are geological and which archaeological, is required if an interpretation of the "anomalies" is to be serviceable in archaeology. Geological complexity can seldom be avoided, except in rare cases where the matrix of a site is some homogeneous material that produces no reflections whatever.
